Politicking over charter schools continues; House vote delayed

The continuing debate over charter school expansion will not end, and Memphis lawmakers are primarily the reason. In a two-hour marathon debate during the House Education Committee, Democrat Reps. Ulysses Jones and Joe Towns issued amendments aiming to change a proposal to expand charter school eligibility to students on free and reduced-lunch programs.

The proposal would have applied to school districts with more than 12,000 students. Jones’ amendment aimed to open charter schools to all FARL students in the state, while Towns’ amendment would have opened charter schools to all students, period.

Both measures were meant to sink the bills, but a split committee and wavering swing votes killed both amendments, as well as another by Jones to remove Memphis City Schools from the bill.

All three proposals were meant to be tacked on to an amendment by Rep. Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, to rewrite the bill to apply the expansion to the previously-mentioned 12,000-student districts (there are 12 out of the state’s 136 school districts, including Davidson County).

Once they failed, Harwell’s amendment succeeded and the committee appeared ready to vote on the bill. Jones made a motion to delay the bill a week, even though the committee had planned to finish all of its bills today.

The move succeeded when Rep. Ron Lollar, R-Bartlett, passed on his vote. The delay succeeded 11-10; if Lollar had voted against the motion (as his Republican colleagues did), the delay would have failed and the bill would have been voted on today.

Chairman Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, said after the delay that he would confer with Speaker Kent Williams to set a time next week so that the committee would not interfere with House sessions.